Roguelikes, a video game genre that has been reinvented over and over again. What is a roguelike and how did they become so popular? To answer this bearing question we must go back in time to the place where it all started. Rogue, a simple dungeon crawler made by four individuals. Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, Ken Arnold, and John Lane. Rogue could have been your stereotypical adventure game, but the team wanted to take this idea of exploring dungeons even further. They used procedural generation to randomize the dungeons the player would explore. Meaning if they died or started a new playthrough the game would feel different each time. It was a simple concept that helped form an addictive core gameplay loop that kept players coming back for more.
Rogue has been praised by many for being such an influential title and has an entire cult still referencing this game today. It wasn’t until several years later that other developers would expand upon Rogue’s ideas. Indie developers are what I’m specifically referring to, because they're the ones who take old game design and modernize it in a sensible way. One of the first few indie games to modernize the roguelike design was Spelunky, which involved the player navigating through dangerous caves filled with instant kill traps. However, the first indie developer to both popularize and modernize Rogue’s design philosophy was solo indie developer Edmund Mcmillen, the creator of Super Meat Boy. After creating one of the most challenging platformers of all time, Edmund wanted to tackle a genre that hasn’t been done in ages.
Taking ideas from Rogue and even some influence from The Legend of Zelda games, Edmund created The Binding of Isaac. It followed a young traumatized boy named Isaac traveling through a cryptic cavern fighting endless hordes of demonic creatures. The game was difficult, horrifying, and really addicting. Critics praised how well designed The Binding of Isaac was and how much replay value the game had to offer. It was thanks to Edmund Mcmillen that other indie developers would try to put their take onto Rogue’s design. There were so many games based off of Rogue that they needed a new genre name. That’s when they came up with “roguelikes.”
There are a lot of indie roguelikes in the market that I don’t even know where to start. There is Enter The Gungeon, a bullet hell where practically everything is a gun or gun related. Darkest Dungeon where the characters you control develop emotions overtime and their trust will either spark or dwindle. Crypt of The NecroDancer where everything is timed to the beat of the music. And finally the one we are about to talk about today. In 2001, a small team of up to ten developers known as Motion Twin was found and together they would create one of the most complex roguelikes in recent years. They wanted to combine the aspects of roguelikes, the interconnected level design of metroidvanias, and the hard to master combat of Dark Souls. You heard me right, "Combat of Dark Souls." This is what led to the idea for Dead Cells, what they claim to be a “roguevania”. In 2017 they published an early access release for Dead Cells, and while it wasn’t popular at the time it still received positive reception. Finally in 2018, they released the final version of their game and surprisingly out of nowhere Dead Cells blew up. It was one of very few early access games in the market to actually live up to expectations. People praised the game for both its fast paced frenetic gameplay, its twisting generated levels, and how Motion Twin was able to expand the game on future playthroughs and difficulty settings. Some critics even considered Dead Cells to be one of the best games of 2018. Another noteworthy title for the books!
I have never been a huge fan of roguelikes, so I decided a perfect starting point would be Dead Cells. The pixel artstyle looked cool, a lot of people compared it to Dark Souls, and a few members of the Hollow Knight community recommended it to me. Having finally beaten the game I can confirm that it has exceeded my expectations. Dead Cells is such a f*cking fun game and I keep coming back to it just so I can have another taste of its sweet combat, satisfying visuals, and to see how far I can get on the next run. If it’s not that, then it’s probably to unlock new gear and test out new weapons. Dead Cells may be the first roguelike I have played, but I’m already claiming it to be one of the best ever made. I feel like it’s a game that anyone can pick up and play, even if they struggle within the first few hours. So today we’ll be talking about why I totally love Dead Cells and why it deserves your attention. So fill up your estus- I mean health flask and prepare to dive deep into this constantly shifting prison.
Story
We play as the Beheaded, a pile of slime who takes control of a beheaded corpse and has a one eye fireball for a head. He wakes up in a prison cell with no recollection of how he got there, but once he exits his cell he soon discovers the prison is infested with monsters and that he has to escape immediately. Once he makes his way out of the prison area he finds himself in a mystical kingdom now overrun with beasts and the undead. He tries to explore more of the kingdom, but is then killed immediately and sent back to the prison cell. He is told by a nearby prison guard who dies moments afterwards that the kingdom mysteriously keeps resetting and reforming on itself. The Beheaded doesn't understand how this happens at first, but he then soon discovers the kingdom resets specifically whenever he dies while out in the field.
By progressing further he picks up documents talking about a disease known as the Malaise. Months ago, the Malaise quickly spread throughout the land and started transforming the citizens into mindless zombies or monstrous creatures. Those who weren’t infected rebelled against the king, knowing he wasn’t doing anything to contain or cure the Malaise. However, the king was hard at work along with his loyal alchemist to discover a cure for the Malaise. They failed to find one and slowly began to succumb to the disease themselves. By exploring more of the kingdom, now with the aid of a mysterious tall hooded figure named The Collector and his weird little gremlins, the Beheaded can figure out what happened before he arrived, what his purpose is, and hopefully escape this hellhole of a kingdom. He may even discover what happened to the loyal subjects of the king and the king himself.
Gameplay
Much like any roguelike, everytime you die in Dead Cells the entire world rearranges itself, forcing the player to adapt and understand what dangers may lie in each area. Corridors are filled with traps, enemies will hound you from every direction, and the environment will range depending on what path forward you choose. Some areas might be easier than others and provide the safest route, but contain very few rewards that will help you for the endgame areas. Other areas will be harder and contain more dangerous foes, but reward you with stronger equipment. The game even rewards the player with powerful gear for navigating each area within a specific amount of time, so mastering a specific region may turn the tides during a playthrough. There are even rewards for killing a certain amount of enemies within a region without taking damage, encouraging an aggressive yet reactive playstyle. Speedrunning at it's finest.
There are a multitude of enemies, some of them will come in hordes and others will pile drive you into the ground if you don’t understand their attack pattern. Luckily there is a wide variety of weapons you can unlock and pick up throughout runs to fend yourself from foes. Each weapon has their own fighting style and traits, and depending on the level number the weapon is at you should be able to down most basic foes within three or four hits. Scattered through each run are scrolls, and with scrolls you can level up one of three categories: brutality, vitality, and survival. Not only do scrolls increase your maximum health, but they can also affect the efficiency and damage output of your weapons. For example the Assassin’s Dagger is a brutality weapon, so if I put points into brutality I can turn it into a killing machine. You can get very creative if you plan out what playstyles to have for each run. There are just so many weapons and abilities to obtain across every run. Daggers, swords, dual daggers, greatswords, whips, hammers, spears, bows, crossbows, pyromancy, lightning, shields, bombs, turrets, summons, syringes, and even boots! Be careful, because mindlessly hacking away at enemies is what may lead you to an unpredictable death.
You’ll have to dodge at the right time in order to get the edge on enemies shortly after. If you have a shield equipped you can parry their attacks. Parrying in Dead Cells is easier than parrying in other games, because you just have to press the shield button when an exclamation point appears above an enemy. Not only do you leave an enemy vulnerable for a second or two, but you can also deal an additional small amount of damage during the parry. If you master parrying you should be able to avoid any type of attack. Don’t get too cocky running around each area because you will take damage in Dead Cells. There are two ways of healing in this game, the healing flask and rallying. The flask is like your stereotypical healing item, it refills a majority of your health and can only be replenished at checkpoints. Rallying is very similar to rallying in Bloodborne, where if you take damage you can gain back the health you lost if you retaliate back against any enemy near you. I really love this mechanic in any video game, because not only does it reinforce the aggressive playstyle but it is a great way to reobtain health besides using the usual method of busting out an item during a busy fight.
The more you explore each area in the game and the more enemies you kill, the more gold and cells you pick up which can be used to purchase upgrades and items. At each checkpoint lies The Collector, a being who you’ll have to give your cells to in order to progress to the next area. Luckily, The Collector can use these cells to give you new weapons, tools, upgrades, and mutations which are special perks you can equip during the first three areas. However, to unlock new equipment you must find blueprints which are dropped by enemies. You lose the blueprint if you die before giving them to the collector, so be careful when you discover one. With gold you can use it to upgrade whatever gear you have on hand, buy items at shops, re-equip your mutations, and open gates to find stronger equipment. When you die you’ll drop all your gold, cells, and scroll upgrades. You’ll be forced back to the first area in the game, but you’ll still be able to collect the weapons you unlocked through The Collector, and keep upgrades you earned using cells. With the power surging through your veins you should be able to seek the truth that lies at the end of it all. You shall not die within your cell.
Thoughts
Dead Cells proved to me that you can still be a fun game even if you force the player to start back at square one. I never got frustrated whenever I died, even when facing some of the bosses who have the health pool of the Atlantic Ocean. The design philosophy of roguelikes is that while you are kicked to the beginning it is intended. You learn from your mistakes and progress further with each run. I always got back up from my feet and kept playing, because I knew I would reach the end eventually. Luckily with the several branching paths in the game you can unlock new ways to get through the world or challenge yourself even further by dashing through the hardest areas, providing a high sense of replayability value and discovery. The aspect that really kept me around to play Dead Cells was the combat and that combat is just so god damn addicting. It’s in the same approach Bloodborne had where by being aggressive you keep the player more engaged with the game. A majority of the weapons differentiate themselves enough to not feel like carbon copies of each other. None of them feel bad to use and when they do feel bad it’s because you didn’t pour enough scroll upgrades into the stat that they scale with. The game rewards the player for giving each run their best effort and just about when they think they didn’t achieve anything at all they may find something around the next corner. The graphics are incredibly detailed especially for a pixel game, and the soundtrack is gorgeous much like Hollow Knight. It makes you feel empty on the inside and realize the kingdom you are exploring is more treacherous than you think. What happened to cause this must have been really bad. Yet the music can be thrilling at times and help give yourself the fighting force to push forward.
I thought I would be done with the game once I beat the final boss, but it turns out it opens up more once you beat it the first time. You unlock a boss cell upon berating the final boss, which can be used to make the game even harder. By equipping the boss cell you limit the amount of times your health flask is replenished in-between zones, find new blueprints to stronger weapons, there are new enemies in each area as well as stronger enemies appearing early on, and you take more damage than usual. Once you beat the game with the boss cell you unlock another one and it keeps going until you unlock the fifth one. The difficulty isn't balanced perfectly, but it's still fun to see the new content. Plus the true ending isn't unlocked until you beat the hardest mode.
With this much praise you think I would give Dead Cells a perfect score? Well first off just because it got me into roguelikes doesn’t mean it’s a perfect game, and I do have one major flaw with it. Compared to Hollow Knight which had a world deep in lore if you took the time to look into it, Dead Cells doesn’t have that much lore to work with and treads a very thin surface. I can tell there is something buried beneath it all, but it isn’t much to really call the story compelling or one worth looking back upon. This problem isn't big enough though to ruin my overall positive enjoyment with the game, and remember the game is really good. Dead Cells is a fun addicting roguelike with an infinite amount of reply value that I can highly recommend to anyone, even if they're not a fan of the roguelike genre. No major complaints besides the story, and every component of this game works.. Motion Twin have created a masterpiece in roguelike design and it will be awhile until someone else sets a new bar for the genre. In the end I am going to give Dead Cells a 9/10 for excellence at best. I heard the developers are going to continue updating the game as long as they can by adding new content and areas. They have no plans for a sequel or any new IPs, and their fanbase keeps growing with each major update. I wish the best of luck for Motion Twin and hope whatthey add next will perfectly blend in with the game and maintain what makes it so enjoyable.
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